The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c6.s3.7

c6.s3.7

We shall now briefly review some of the considerations which have been held to militate against this view. The late Diwan Bahadur L. D. Swamikkannu Pillai said in his *Indian Ephemeris*, vol. i, ‘Portions of the *Paripādal* anthology which deal with developments of Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism seem to be more recent than the first century A.D. if we are to follow Dr. Bhandarkar and other eminent authorities’ (p. 105). Again, Kanakasabhai’s work would have to be renamed ‘*The Tamils 1200 Years Ago*’. ‘These somewhat overdrawn pictures of the state of civilization in South India 1800 years ago will have to be revised in the light of our present day knowledge of epigraphy and chronology, and the scenes of the Madura Śangam will have to be transferred from the first century, A.D. to the seventh and the early part of the eighth century A.D., the period which witnessed along with the decay of Buddhism, the rise of the Śaivite and Vaiṣṇavite teachers, Tirugnānasambandar, Śankarācārya, Nammālvār, etc.’ Incidentally this rearrangement will explain the Tamil literary tradition which ascribes the *Jīvakacintāmaṇi* to the same age as other Śangam works (p. 469). Lastly, the Kaṇṇaki legend may be as old as Gajabāhu I in Ceylon, but not older than the seventh or sixth century in South India. The contemporaneity of the kings mentioned in the *Śilappadikāram* is very doubtful as the figures of Karikāla and